It’s always amazing to look back at how terribly simple things once were. These pop-up books, for example, are intricately layered to show the various organs in a human body. Doctors would use ’em for practice surgery runs. [Laughing Squid]
It’s such simple technology—if I can even call it that—that it’s incredible that people used these materials to learn about our body and cut with confidence. I especially love how the video uses scalpels to flip each page. The books are part of the Animated Anatomies exhibition at the Duke University Perkins Library through July 17, 2011. Some of these anatomical pop-up books go back to the 16th century.